Being Unique

It’s quite normal to want to be more than we are. We are taught from early age that “our reach should always exceed our grasp.” Don’t settle for mediocrity when one can be so much more. An ad for Army recruits encourages one to “be all that you can be,” implying who you are now is not the person you have the potential to be. Even the ancient rabbis professed the unique nature of humanity when they taught that in creating humankind, God created male and female, but no two alike. Knowing that one bears a uniqueness separating him/her from every other human being, makes one also believe that there must be more to him/her than what appears.

Bible scholar Pinhas Peli teaches, “Holiness is the Jewish answer to the problem of human existence. [Humankind] has always sought to ascribe some metaphysical meaning to physical life, suggesting that if man is not somehow more than human, he is less than human. . .Judaism taught that it is holiness that can add this extra dimension to our lives, not by escaping from life, but rather by striving to “be holy” in this world and in this life.”

This Torah portion teaches, “The Lord said to Moses, speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron and say to them: None shall defile himself for any dead person among his people” (Lev. 21:1). In the ancient context, this meant the priests (Cohanim) were not permitted to have anything to do with the preparation and burial of the dead. This restriction came to include a prohibition against priests even entering a cemetery. In their early stages, the Jewish people defined themselves by differences between their God and religion, and that of the Egyptians from whence they came. In ancient Egypt, all of life centered around a cult of death. “Houses of eternity” were built for the dead. The chief responsibility of the Egyptian priests was to watch over and perform the required death rituals. Peli points out, “[This difference] emphasizes the fact that [the Israelite priest’s] job is not to cater to the dead, but to serve as a teacher and model of holiness for the living.”

The ancient priests, like today’s rabbis and teachers, were responsible for modeling the attributes the individual Jew should be striving for; attributes of “holiness.” What does it mean “to be holy”? Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, and lending a hand to the needy are all acts of “holiness.” Being a “holy” person means reaching beyond one’s grasp, stepping out of one’s immediate comfort zone, doing the doable while dreaming the impossible.

For a “holy” person, the status quo is never acceptable while even one human cry is heard. This is the challenge of being Jewish. It is a challenge of uniqueness, measured not in the terms of fame and fortune but in acts of holiness.